Introduction
Short stories do not always follow a simple chronological sequence of events. Sometimes stories will jump around in time and change settings many times before the resolution.
Instructions
You will have noticed that "Borders" is not a chronological story. Unlike Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart," it does not start at the beginning and work through a middle and then an end. Instead, the story makes very effective use of something called the flashback, when a story provides information about something that happened before the current point in the story. In "Borders," the main story takes place when the narrator is twelve years old and his Mom decides to go on a trip across the American-Canadian border to visit his sister in Salt Lake City. The flashbacks describe the times when his sister first left her community when the narrator was nine years old.
The central frame of the story has a clear beginning, middle, and end, but the flashbacks are more elusive. It's not always clear where and when and what is being described. In this way, Thomas King's story is a blend of the native tradition of circular story telling and the European tradition of linear story telling.
Now take a moment to answer some of the key questions about "Borders." For this exercise, some of the questions have been removed from the full template, as they will be discussed later.
Click on the pdf, rtf or doc icon to download and complete the How to Get a Story to Talk template.
 How to Get a Story to Talk template pdf |
 How to Get a Story to Talk template rtf |
 How to Get a Story to Talk template doc |
Discussion Prompt |
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Should modern media be able to change the shape of the world, to make stories, to break stories? What is wrong with having a media dominated world? What is truly good about having a media dominated world? |
Guidelines for contribution: For all three questions have at least two supporting points for each opinion that you share. Comment on at least one other student's viewpoints. |